


Day, Evening

by SabineElectricHeart (TheLifeAndLiesOfFerns)



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Cheating, Childhood Sweethearts, F/M, Returning Home, Romance, World Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:42:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29167482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLifeAndLiesOfFerns/pseuds/SabineElectricHeart
Summary: Every day, Estella waits for the time when Alex is alone again.
Relationships: Alex/Female Player (Stardew Valley), Alex/Haley (Stardew Valley)
Kudos: 13





	Day, Evening

The slow and monotonous ticking of the old clock hung on her kitchen wall seemed to calm her. Estella found it was quite odd. Before, when she worked at Joja, when she was a desk jockey at a cubicle with no sunlight, the sound would have made her anxious, as the steps of a bear in a dark forest.

The sound of the steady clock that rang deep into her farmstead’s much too large rooms was always miniscule, until the days Haley came along.

When Estella relocated to the valley, Emily’s blond, vapid sister had been with their parents somewhere beyond the Calico Desert, travelling and living the high life. It was an arrangement that worked for both sisters, as one was into shopping and photography and the other preferred tranquil communion with nature.

It worked for most of the valley, too, as her temperament did not afford her many sympathies around Pelican Town. The only exception was her on again, off again boyfriend, Alex, but as he set his attentions to the new farmer at Stardew Estate, he too conformed with her extended departure.

The farm owner is sure that, had she never left, she would have had at least a cordial, neighbourly relationship with the blonde, but when Alex showed up at her doorstep with a newly-returned Haley as his shadow, the ringing seemed to blast in her ears like a warning sign.

It was half past four. Haley must be going home now.

It was a small thing she had not realized until now, the way she seemed she had counted the minutes until she could be sure to get him alone again. Maybe it was selfish, wanting someone else’s boyfriend to herself, but he was hers first. Not that he was something to own, but still, he never really was Haley’s either.

Could something that belonged with her, that she held in such staunch defence, slip through her fingers so easily? Estella had dearly hoped not, but yet, it seemed like he did. Which was something that would fill them both with regret for the years to follow.

However, Alex and Haley could not let that stop them from enjoying what they had now, what was coming to them, almost promised by the stars above. The reunion that would be documented for years to come, the reunion of their love that never ended even when they were separated.

Only under the kind rays of the Autumn sun, though. As blue skies turn dark, so did the circumstances of his heart.

When Alex crosses into the stately property on the edge of town, this time he is no longer followed by the shadow of a girl that was not her, his heavy steps were masked as the urge to run like he could not get to her soon enough.

His love, the bottomless love he has missed the entire afternoon, even longer still. He had missed her for so long, and he seemed to have traded her in for nothing more than the familiarity that came with a teenage glory.

His large frame crosses the door that was always open to him. Estella was there, sitting by the table, drinking tea and waiting for him. The second she is within arm’s length, he sweeps her into his embrace like he could anchor himself there if he tried hard enough.

“A part of me feels bad. Like I took you away from Haley.” The woman in his arms had said. “It feels selfish.”

Her words are muffled into the cool cotton of his black undershirt, his hands traced up the soft contours of her back until they tangled in her soft hair.

“Don’t worry.” He whispered, laying a ghost of a kiss graced the top of her head as he spoke. “You aren’t selfish, and you could never take me from anyone else. A part of me was always with you.”

Alas, Estella could not just let it go, because of the deep-seeded fear that maybe this was not real, that it was a lie or an illusion. She had this dream a thousand times, she has seen his smile across the empty fields of the valley and the feeling of his kiss against her skin haunted her time and time again. Yet, as his arms snaked around her waist once more, the feeling it left was just like coming home.

“I can’t change what happened, the only thing I can do is show you every day just how much you mean to me.” He responded, snaring her further into his physical caresses and his ill-thinking. “You are the only one for me.”

The fear seemed to melt away as their breathing became one and his words sank into her heart, because she knew he meant it. Suddenly, all could she feel was him. His love washed over her like a gentle breeze.

“ _It’s always been you._ ” Was the soft whisper laying on her ears.

When the words leave his month, he realizes just how strangely candid they were, in a perverted sense, because he has never felt more whole than when he is at the farm owner’s side.

He pulls away slightly only to look down at her face, trying to memorize her all over again, to make sure tomorrow he will have it burned in his mind as well. His eyes traced every detail of her face, the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and the tiny scar that graced her cheek.

Alex grinned when he could see the pink tint grow on her face as his eyes roamed her face, the glow illuminating under the slow-changing sunset through the house’s large panelled windows. With one final smile, he bends down lightly to press a kiss to her forehead as she intertwines their fingers.

With that kiss, they set off to entangle themselves once more, like every day. As the hours went by, so did the words and feelings, like sand drifting in the wind.


End file.
